I don't mind loosing the odd bird. A fox is worthy opponent. I'm just fed up of loosing so many. They've had thirty birds since we moved here in October.

I don't think I want to keep chickens in a pen. I suppose I could just let them out when I'm around, but they'd be in all the time in the winter. I'm going to move the house down here, I think. I haven't seen a fox (except once, in the trap) I suppose I could get a dog.

Jenna's school friends have been discussing fox culling with their parents, as she is devising methods of protection and dispatch in the playground. I blame Wallace and Grommit! It all seems to involve alarms and lasers and traps!!

When we had a few hens we only let them out when we were around. Even then and even with a dog we still had the odd fox try their luck. To be brutal if you don't let hens out at all they will be happier than being let out some times and shut in the next. I don't mean 'enriched cage' shut in, but a large fenced movable run.

Having spent a fair bit of time outdoors in suburban gardens and the country side I see foxes at all times and often close by. I have met someone who didn't have any trouble with free-ranging hens but he did stalk the countryside with a shotgun many evenings and he did have a few Ridgebacks running about.